Sak'trada Deeps, Gurgan System Edge, Vulpa Straits.
At the workbench beside the viewport of the relic-class ship Starcaller, Lord Santiago Borgkamp watched.
Data streams from the Simulus Chamber scrolled across the cogitator screen, including both survey results from the reconnaissance fleet and auspex data captured by the Fifth Chapter's fleet.
As a full-fledge "Astrologer," Santiago used the scan data as reference.
His hands moved rapidly, plotting turn vectors for a massive vessel.
The Star, a battle barge built by the Forge World of Xana in gratitude to Shadows of Order.
The Fifth Chapter, the first to arrive at the Xana-Vicidex system, had opened the gateway to Xana.
Based on their merit, the Fifth Chapter received the first battle barge Xana built for the Legion.
The battle barge was a behemoth, larger than relic-class or Emperor-class battleships. Among Shadows of Order's vessels, only Gloriana-class battleships were bigger.
The Star's engines accelerated. It rose, turned, moving flexibly through the defile corridor.
It never scraped the floating rocks or the canyon's uneven surfaces.
The battle barge fired colorful aether beams, illuminating, like lumen lamps, the blurred ships shrouded in layered time fields.
Lances followed the path opened by the aether cannons through the twisted time field, striking the Hrud ships directly.
The blazing beams, in the regional time field created by the numerous Hrud ships, deflected downward at a slight angle.
The beams folded, cut into the enemy ship's underside and exiting through its stern.
The silent explosion of the Hrud warship sent shockwaves through the structure of spacetime.
The battle barge's powerful attack immediately drew Hrud retaliation.
Entropy beams, across different temporal zones, created ripples.
Rocks of various sizes floating in space ignited.
Some rocks exploded in the process.
Others shattered to dust, drifting in the void.
"Impact... Impact..." The Star's servitors' monotone warnings echoed across the bridge.
The prow was suddenly thrown upward. Magnetic locks held the Shadows of Order to the deck. Dozens of officers and hundreds of servitors were hurled.
A servitor struck the ceiling. With a crackling of sparks, its broken body ignited.
Several officers tumbled, crashing into cogitators, landing on slanted consoles.
A dozen casualties, but none aged to death by the twisted entropy fields.
The Jokaeros' force fields protected the battle barge's occupants from being swallowed by that painful darkness.
As officers rushed to their stations, the Master of Ordnance had already seized the moment. The prow's port aether cannon fired at the Hrud.
The rising Star also fired two colorful beams from its underside.
The Hrud ships, swept by the aether beams, drifted lifelessly. In the fading entropy fields, flames erupted bizarrely.
Santiago, at the viewport, continued coordinating.
The black ships, emblazoned with the star emblem, formed a line. Rainbow light illuminated the Vulpa Straits's eternally dim void.
The deployed ships, broadside, unleashed dense radioactive electromagnetic waves, turning xenos ship after xenos ship into ominous shadows.
Time rays from the Hrud ships' gleaming weapon blisters pushed the black ships forward with the current.
Santiago checked the viewscreens at his console. The Star endured the most temporal attacks. The force field, like a hard tortoise shell, withstood wave after wave.
Every second, the field's integrity decreased minutely, but noticeably: [90.34%, 90.33%, 90.32%...]
The battle barge drew the Hrud's concentrated fire, but some ships still came under attack.
The old Cobra-class destroyer, Starfall, was besieged by two xenos ships. The psychic field projected by its fortress-grade energy shield rapidly deteriorated: [43.63%, 38.41%... 25.74%...]
Each time Starfall was struck, the psychic field's vibrations also impacted the enemy ships, like a backlash.
On the viewscreen, the layered entropy fields, like a peeled eggshell, grew clearer.
Santiago's helmet comm buzzed. He answered. The Starfall's Captain's voice, steady and resolute, sounded.
"My Lord, Starfall cannot shake its pursuers."
"I will order it to light the dark Vulpa Straits."
Santiago glanced at the hololithic strategic display. The fleet was unable to turn in the narrow sector to provide support.
He quickly calculated the Star's turn would take three minutes twenty-five seconds.
He would not order support. His strategy revolved around the Star. Deviation would trigger chain reactions, causing greater losses.
"I agree with your decision. I salute you, Commander."
"For the Monarch! For the Star Lord!" The Captain's voice was resolute, like a shadow of Order.
Santiago watched Starfall accelerate. A flicker of sorrow crossed his eyes.
The Cobra destroyer, propelled by the temporal currents, accelerated towards the Hrud fleet's concentration.
The overloaded Punisher-class reactor's power was entirely allocated to the fortress-grade energy shield's generator. For a moment, Starfall's shield strengthened, until over a dozen nearby ships focused on it.
The moment the psychic shield shattered, a tsunami rose in the Sea of Souls.
A sun rose in the Vulpa Straits. The overloaded reactor's explosion, mingled with the psychic turbulence from the fortress-grade shield, created a storm at the heart of the Hrud fleet.
The shriek of death swept through. Colorful flames blazed in the fading entropy fields.
Santiago stared at the blossoming, blinding light. As a Daemonologist, his eyes stung as if pricked.
He watched the tragic sacrifice of Starfall, thinking silently.
'The psychic shield of the fortress-grade defense is inferior to the Jokaero force field. No wonder my Lord urgently ordered the Jokaeros deployed before the war.'
'The overloaded psychic shield caused significant damage, unlike the force field.'
'My Lord said the force field's primary purpose was to defend against predators in the Warp.'
As Shadows of Order's premier psychic artisan, Santiago still couldn't grasp the force field's principle.
But after unleashing psychic attacks, he had verified the Black Emperor's words.
'My Lord said the Jokaeros were created by the Old Ones, a race specialized in creation. Their craft, surpassing technology and psychic power... or rather, merging the two, is astonishing.'
'Hmm... In the data-crystal my Lord sent, it also mentioned the Hrud were created by the Old Ones.'
'The Old Ones' creations fighting the race they created.'
As Santiago pondered, the viewscreen showed the explosion's results: forty-one Hrud ships confirmed destroyed.
Starfall's sacrifice had unexpectedly broken the stalemate, giving the Fifth Chapter the advantage.
Santiago decided to capture a Hrud ship.
"Prepare for boarding!"
Fifteen minutes later, Santiago reached the flight deck.
Considering the residual entropy fields might cause temporal fluctuations interfering with teleportation, he chose boarding torpedoes.
He entered a compartment with two CORV pattern drones.
Taller than Squat CORV drones.
Their backs similarly curved upward. Instead of a ornate crest, a spherical object like a shining star covered the rounded dome.
It contained a Warp resonator. The spherical casing was engraved with complex Warp circuits, synchronized with the talismans on Santiago's armor.
The CORV drones could amplify psychic power, and also acted as psychic fuses.
They were being experimentally integrated into Shadows of Order's system, assigned to Chief Librarians and Lords with psychic abilities.
On Santiago's back was mounted his modified Aeldari Warp Spider jump generator, making the compartment even tighter.
As the rows of boarding torpedoes raced into the void, a bright aether beam struck the target.
A gleaming blister burst. Over a dozen boarding torpedoes were thrown aside by the temporal shockwave.
Hundreds of torpedoes, deflected, slammed into the Hrud ship.
The moment the melta charges detonated, Santiago activated his warp-jump pack.
His form vanished from reality, appearing in an instant within the realm born of powerful minds, intense emotions, and primal impulses.
The realm reflected by the Hrud ship was like a grey, desolate ruin.
Empty, as if everything had been worn to dust by time.
Desolation assailed Santiago's mind. It made him feel that everything was meaningless against the flow of time.
His thoughts slowed.
The CORV drones' failsafe mechanism automatically activated. Warning runes lit up.
The talismans on Santiago crackled. He snapped back.
With a thought, the failsafe mechanism further engaged.
He ascended to the third level of the Thelema mindstate.
In an instant, the Warp Spider rune lit up.
Santiago leaped back to reality, landing in a corridor as dim as a tunnel.
The seasoned "Astrologer's" psychic intuition sensed he was enveloped by a lifeless greyness, affected by a twisted, bizarre energy.
With a thought, his helmet's display showed a shadow.
A raised its Bedrock-pattern bolter and fired at the Hrud.
The moment the adamantium-tipped rounds touched the entropy field, either the explosives prematurely detonated due to decay, or the rounds disintegrated as metal atoms dissolved.
The Hrud's effect on their surroundings was unpredictable.
Flame weapons were more effective against them. But these experimental drones, following Squat doctrine, could only physically handle Bedrock-pattern bolters.
Their greater role was in the psychic domain, even for Grimnyr.
Santiago and the CORV drones vanished, reappearing behind the Hrud.
Psychic crystals blazed. A force sword struck a Hrud.
The psychic field shrieked unusually but still tore through the silicate scale-like armor padding.
The Daemonologist raised his force staff. Ice spread through the corridor instantly.
The veil between reality and the Warp was torn. A colorful vortex enveloped over a dozen Hrud.
Amidst the Hrud's terrified shrieks, the "Summon Void" rift closed, vanishing with the Hrud and a section of decayed bulkhead.
More Hrud surged forward, raising flintlocks at Santiago.
The Warp Spider rune flashed. The Daemonologist and the two CORV drones vanished.
ZZZAAAP...
A column of fire hotter than a star ignited a bulkhead, blazing intensely.
On the mirror's other side, Santiago swung his blazing force sword, cleaving through predators lunging from the tide.
He glanced at the countless, greedy maws of enormous size lunging at him.
Santiago frowned. 'The warp-jump device isn't mature enough.'
As he thought, a rune flashed. He returned to reality.
Frost from the Warp anomaly, colliding with the entropy fields, created supernatural mist that filled the corridor.
With a thought, the talismans on Santiago and the runes on the two CORV drones activated simultaneously.
He extinguished his force staff's light, slinging it over his back. As the failsafe mechanism engaged, he felt his close connection to the Warp abruptly severed.
The loss of power momentarily weakened Santiago. But the "Scribe" found strength in the Black Emperor's gift.
A phantom book appeared in the "Scribe's" eyes. Pages turned. He selected an ability to release: "Fire Crow."
The Dunnic incantation, "I came, I saw, I recorded," rose.
A flock of fire crows condensed around the "Scribe." He struggled to guide them with his psychic energy towards the Hrud.
The phantom crows flew, each on a different path towards their targets.
They wobbled. The closer they got, the more they slipped from the "Scribe's" control.
Fortunately, the narrow corridor and blazing flames limited the Hrud's movement.
Most fire crows still struck their targets. Their intense heat melted the Hrud's tattered clothing, engulfing their twisted forms.
The phantom book's pages turned again. The "Scribe" selected from his "records" an ability from the only person in the Chapter with the same rank in the Court as himself, the Viscount "Judge."
Recording a Court Viscount's ability was not yet proficient for the "Scribe." After thirty-two attempts, his activated "brain" finally arranged the symbols, patterns, and marks correctly.
He raised his right arm, pushing forward.
As the incantation "I came, I saw, I recorded" rose, he shouted in Dunnic: "Imprison!"
Viscous, almost solid, transparent liquid layer upon layer wrapped a Hrud.
In the giant amber, its large eyes held terror and confusion.
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
[email protected]/DaoistJinzu